Computer programs have been developed and packaged for detecting and quantitating atherosclerotic disease formation and its location along the entire arterial tree, and for statistical correlaton of disease patterns with anatomy, diet, and vessel wall permeability. Permeability is indicated with Evans' Blue dye and disease is indicated with Sudan IV Red dye. Colors are separated using appropriate filters in the scanning process and the resulting digital images are transformed to a standard coordinate system. An iterative edge-finding algorithm searches the image for an optimal threshold of maximum optical intensity to identify and isolate diseased areas. Topographic maps, formed by overlaying the disease patterns from different animals, show the incidence and coincidence of disease at a given location. The maps describe the extremely congruent distribution of the disease in a concise and quantitative manner and provide the researcher with a tool for correlation of disease patterns with local histologic, physical, biochemical events.